A U.S. House committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would block development of a West Valley casino on land the Tohono O’odham Nation bought near Glendale.

The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., passed the House Committee on Natural Resources on a 35-5 vote.

It now heads to the full House for consideration, and the bill’s proponents are hoping for swift passage. Opponents say the project violates an agreement among tribes not to build new casinos in metro Phoenix.

The committee nixed a proposed amendment by Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., that would have essentially nullified the bill’s impact.

The bill seeks to prevent more casinos on Phoenix-area land designated as a reservation after April 2013. The prohibition would expire in 2027.

The bill takes direct aim at the Tohono O’odham Nation, which announced plans to build a casino near Glendale’s sports and entertainment district in 2009. The plans prompted a string of lawsuits and legislation. The tribe’s opponents, including two Valley tribes that operate casinos, have argued that a 2002 voter-backed compact barred more casinos from opening in the Valley.

The Tohono O’odham Reservation is based in southern Arizona, but leaders purchased the West Valley land in 2003 using a shell corporation and then sought to designate the vacant field as a reservation. That status is important because tribes can operate casinos only on reservations.

The U.S. Department of the Interior had approved the tribe’s request to create the reservation based on a 1986 federal law that allowed the tribe to take more land into its reservation to make up for tribal land damaged by a federal dam. But finalizing the designation has been stalled in court.

Thus, the very name of Franks’ bill, Keep the Promise Act of 2013, is contentious. Tohono O’odham proponents see the bill as breaking a promise that congressional leaders made to the tribe, while opponents see the measure as honoring a promise made to voters in 2002. Campaign literature at the time had asserted that voting for the proposition would cap Phoenix-area casinos.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., said the measure’s swift passage is critical to the future of gaming in Arizona, arguing that the bill’s defeat would lead to a “dangerous precedent” of off-reservation gaming.

Gosar told his colleagues that a key part of the compact was a tribal agreement barring more Valley casinos.

But that’s a point of controversy, as the compact does not include such a prohibition. U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell pointed to that when he ruled last month that the tribe’s casino plans do not violate the compact.

Officials in the Gila River Indian Community this week appealed Campbell’s decision.

“It’s been difficult to overcome some of the misinformation generated by those working on behalf of the opponents of the O’odham tribe,” Grijalva said.

Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., also spoke against the bill, saying it would break promises to the tribe and would kill future jobs.

The legislation’s next move depends on whether the House majority leader adds it to theschedule for a vote. Last year, the House passed a similar bill sponsored by Franks but the Senate never considered it. The latest bill could meet the same fate, but Franks previously said his second attempt would attract more support because he removed any direct changes to the Tohono O’odham’s congressional settlement and added the sunset clause.

Gila River Indian Community Gov. Gregory Mendoza said Wednesday in a written statement that the “bill protects the credibility of Arizona tribes who will have to negotiate and obtain voter approval for the future of tribal gaming in just a decade.”

Tohono O’odham Chairman Ned Norris Jr. has called the bill “special-interest legislation which would create a no-competition zone for the Gila River Indian Community and the Salt River (Pima-Maricopa) Indian Community.”

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